Taking your next steps to creating a greener home

At Egg we’re on a mission to create a clearer path to clean energy. We’ve been helping our customers make better, greener choices when it comes to how they power their homes for over 10 years.

We get that although many households like the idea of going green, reducing their energy use and bills are often a bigger priority. That’s why we built our handy Green Home Survey. Combining Egg’s sustainable solutions expertise with the latest energy stats, in a few minutes you can find out which home improvements will help you save money (and the planet while you’re at it).

After you’ve completed our Green Home Survey, you may be thinking “What a surprise – a green solutions supplier recommending I buy solar panels for my home”. Well let us take you behind the scenes, delving into the details of how our calculator crunches the numbers to create your personalised home energy recommendations.

How did you calculate my savings with solar panels & battery storage?

Our recommendations take into account all of the information you share with us in the survey and a number of data sources to work out how much you could save by installing solar & storage. It's pretty accurate, even using your geographical location and roof design to provide tailored results.

Your energy bill and usage

To work out your potential energy savings, we look at the number of people in your household along with industry data to get the most up-to-date estimates for energy consumption including:

• Average energy prices (we update these monthly)

• Amount of energy you are likely going to need to generate

• Usage of gas central heating

• Ofgem consumption information

How many solar panels will I need? And will I need battery storage?

To work out how many solar panels you could fit on your roof and if we would recommend a home battery or not, we look at:

• Your roof size; using the average terraced, semi-detached, detached or bungalow home

• Your current and expected energy consumption based on how many people live in your house

• Amount of energy you could generate based on daylight hours in your postal code as well as the direction and angle of your roof

• Your lifestyle patterns – if no-one is usually home during the daytime, a battery can store your solar energy for when you are home in the evening

How do you know how much energy my solar panel system could generate?

To work out how much solar panels could generate in your area we use MCS-accredited data. Your postcode tells us where in the UK you are, which gives us information as to how many sunshine hours & the sun's radiation in your area. As you can imagine, it's much sunnier down in Cornwall than up in Aberdeen. This helps us to get a more accurate energy generation estimation for you.

Your savings and pay back timings

To work out how much you could save and when your savings are likely to match your setup costs we make the following assumptions:

• Energy inflation rate is 10%, which may seem high but is lower than what we have seen this year

• Solar panels, like all electrical items reduce in efficiency on a year on year basis, so we take that into account too. However all of our panels come with a 25 year performance warranty.

Sound good?

Find out more about an Egg solar and battery storage system for your home.

We'll be happy to arrange a free virtual solar survey for you, creating a tailored solar system design for your home.

EVs and EV Charging

How did you calculate my savings from an electric car and EV charger?

For our EV recommendations, the numbers that go into our calculator include:

• Fuel efficiency at 36 mpg for petrol or diesel cars

• EV range at 4 miles / kWh

If we recommend an off-peak energy tariff, we are assuming there are 4 hours of an off-peak tariff rate, and you can do 80% of your EV charging at home with it. There is so much fluctuation in the energy market so it’s hard for us to recommend a specific tariff but if you look out for an EV specific one, they tend to be the best! All EV chargers that are installed today are smart chargers enabling you to make the most of whichever tariff you're on - smart hey?

When making the switch to an EV we know there can be some big upfront costs involved, such as deposits, insurance and breakdown cover. With Egg, you can get set up with your very own home EV charger for just £35 per month* (subject to credit check).

Find out more about home EV charging with Egg.

Where does the data for other home improvements come from?

All our calculations use average gas unit prices in the UK at any given time combined with data from the Energy Savings Trust to work out what your best home improvements might be depending on your house type and the work you've already had done.

At Egg we like to think we are the experts in renewable technology but for other home improvements, we look to the expertise of the Energy Savings Trust. Check out their amazing videos below that walk through what each type of insulation is that we have included in the calculator:

Loft insulation

Wall insulation

For wall insulation estimates, we use the age of your home because this gives us information about the insulation you're likely to have. Most homes built after the 1920s have cavity walls and those built after the 1990s will have insulation. We can recommend any of these types of wall insulation based on what you're likely to have.

If you've got questions on any of the above, get in touch with the team – we’re here to help you crack clean energy.